The copyright on the F word has been transferred. Liz Phair no longer has it. Colleen Green (above) does.
She started the show on 1/30/26 in Silver Spring, Maryland, saying "What the F." Then proceeded on to songs called "F*** Around" and "I am F***ing Awesome."
Green's pop sounds like it comes from Phair songbook -- accessible, uptempo tunes about insecurities and relationships. Green's soprano sounds like Phair's to my ears but I am sure a musical specialist could prove me wrong.
While Phair is a grand entertainer, she can lean hard on misandry -- with a wink -- and makes me feel like I am watching a 1940s film noir with a femme fatale complaining about the men who pursue her.
None of that with Green, whose songs explore confusion but end before the flogging begins. Her show featured a power pop sound; just her on guitar and a backing track. The mix at the Quarry House Tavern for her was superior, and the performance was better than her released recordings, with a fatter bass and drums. I was partial to "TV."
Some of Green's material leans to the raw synthpop of the early 1980s. Check out "Highway" and "Deeper Than Love," which appears to be her biggest song.
Brooklyn's Cassie Ramone is an uncommercial protopunk. She sounds like Minnie Mouse on helium and sings about personal problems backed by a tape of drums, bass and samples. I know how hard it is to play with a drum machine; it can rush you. But there is a lot of space in her songs. She's a righteous guitarist who sits in chair and made a lot of other people feel relaxed enough to sit as well. But the backing track was too loud and overpowered her voice and guitar.
The evening of non-conformity kicked off with Miri Tyler, a trans woman with a beguiling finger-picking style on electric guitar with no distortion. Her style, content and sound was like that of Lou Reed in the Velvet Underground days.
We were still digging out snow and ice in Maryland the night of the show. I guessed the attendance was around 40. If you like dive bars and affordable venues you would dig the Quarry House. Not every artist that I hear at the QH winds up on repeat in my stream but Green quickly did.